Tierney

Hi Dear Folk,

Just a few photos that The Boy took.  On his last visit up to Massachusetts and Tierney's last visit down here.  We are getting a Nor Easter tomorrow and I hear there may be snow, or it could just be rain.

In Tierney's yard.

At the Farm Park.

Tierney playing chess with her older brother.

Tierney and I making the Israeli Meat Pie, lining the tin baking tray.

Tierney and I cooking in the kitchen together.

Christine

Ran Into An Old Freind

Hi Dear Folk,

Yesterday while visiting the optician for a check up and to order a new pair of glasses, I thought I'd get it all in before I do not have health coverage anymore.  I ran into an old friend who I had not seen in at least fifteen years, because they had moved to Alabama and we did not keep in touch with them.

Regina had brought her mum in for a checkup and recognized me, or maybe recognized my voice and when she said her name of course I remembered her.  Her son Timothy and my son used to play together.  They have decided to move back to Pennsylvania as both Brad and Regina's mothers are getting older and they want to be around to help them.

So I asked how was Timothy, he was about three years older then Rob, and she said that he died three years ago.  I asked if it was an illness or a tragedy and she said a tragedy and didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.  It's just been weighing on my mind.  Just so sad.  Plus the tragic shootings last week and all those young faces.

On a happier note we said we would get together and we had a lovely long chat.

My son urged me on to get a new camera, truth be I didn't need too much pushing so I settled on an a6000 Sony with the new lens that just came out for it 18-135 mm.  I already had a Sony so some features are similar but there is a lot to learn.

I treated myself to this camera then Mr. B. came to me with a surprise of, half towards the camera, his gift to me.  I will put it towards my trip to the UK.

Here are some of the photos I took with my new camera.  We will keep my old camera in the family as I always liked it.  At eight years old you would not get too much for it.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny so we headed over to our local park.

This tree, so gnarled and a wonderful shape as if it came right out of a fairy story.

After this Mr. B. and I went over to Jem's for lunch, a fifties retro diner in a small strip mall shopping area, it's been a family business there for a very long time.  The usual comfort diner food.  I had a cheese steak Zep with salami, American and provolone cheese, onions and tomatoes, a little different from the usual and Mr. B. had French toast and a side of bacon, he always gets a side of bacon.

On to a little thrifting, small silver and amber necklace $7.99, very dainty and pretty, lovely eighties style mohair jumper and a French bowl which I knew was old and turned out to be late 1800's.

Later in the evening it snowed.  I was a bit concerned about the snow as Rob went to Cape Ann for the weekend, but the next day it all melted away.  He said he had trouble getting out onto the main roads, because Tierney lives down many side roads, but once on the main highways they were all dry.

The Boy said they went for a beautiful walk on Sunday morning.  It was a very heavy wet snow while it lasted, so a dense coating on everything, and of course it's always colder up there in MA than PA where we are.

Rob bought us back a cannoli each from the famous Mike's Pastry in Boston.  I must say I think it was the best cannoli I've ever had.

The French bowl.  Before I even picked it up and turned it over I knew it was French by the shape.  When I was sixteen I visited France with a friend of my mother's, Renee, visiting from the USA, but her parents and all her family were from France.  Originally they moved to Montreal, Canada then moved down to Pennsylvania, which is how I landed up in Pennsylvania, but that's another story.

Renee wanted to visit her uncle who lived in Paris, while over in England and I had a current passport and was able to go over with her.  I remember that every morning we would pop down to the local bakers and buy fresh croissants and her old uncle Gab would brew up a fresh pot of strong coffee, which he would serve in a bowl the same shape as the one above, with heavy cream and we would dunk our croissants in.  Not sure if this is a French tradition but that's what he did and we did.  It was delicious.

Christine

Eagles Shut Down Philadelphia

Hi Dear Folk,

I have decided to swap my days, I am going to take off Thursday instead of Wednesday, even though they are calling for snow and rain on Wednesday, the reason being "Eagles Parade".  As I'm sure you all know even in other parts of the world that the Philadelphia Eagles won the Superbowl. This is the first time they have won it. Patriots have won five times.  Fever is high. The celebration parade is on Thursday, and as much as I would like to be here and watch it from my office, we have a birds eye view here right out front of City Hall, I have decided not to try and come into Philly.

Most of the schools within a radius of Philly will be closed for the day.  An expected one million to three million people will enter the city.  Now I am told that SEPTA can only handle one in four people on their transit system.  I looked up my schedule and the last train runs out of my station at 8:00AM and they are not running anymore trains into Philly after that.  The parade starts at 11:00AM.

I will watch it on TV.

You might like this pre-game skit from SNL. Can't wait to see their after game skit this Saturday.

Eagles or Patriots - What Do I Know?

Hi Dear Folk,

Eagles or Patriots?

We just took photos of us all in the office.  John my boss said wear an Eagles shirt.  I said all I have is a chopping board with the Eagles emblem on, then this morning my husband pulled the rabbit out of the hat coming up with an Eagles shirt with our name on too Hunt #29 which is now Blount’s number so Hunt to Blount.

To be quite honest I follow hardly anything of this so I surprised them all in the office.  I did think of wearing the chopping board like a breast plate.

Bit divided Tierney lives in the Boston area.  I hear there have been some exciting games this year so will watch the Superbowl.

Take care have a great day and weekend.

Christine

Great Expectations - Castle Hill, MA

Hi Dear Folk,

I'm thinking The Boy may have Great Expectations, Tierney and Rob visited Castle Hill, MA over the holiday weekend.

Now this would match any stately home in the UK.

I think Rob says there are rolling hills down to a vista of the sea.

If I lived in this area I would definitively belong to the Historical Society there are so many lovely houses to visit in a small area.

Christine

Cape Ann Crochet Shawl

Hi Dear Folk,

I know I said I would call the burgundy shawl my Cape Ann shawl, but I fell out of love with it.  I did so well with the increase side, but for some reason do you think I could get the decrease side to match, not on your life, after many attempts, I gave up and did my own adaptation, which was to keep on increasing and make it a long triangular shawl, then to add the same flowers across the widest end only as dangles.  So here we are.

The way the flowers were crocheted in at the end of the rows took some learning, but is nice, so wouldn't mind adapting that on another pattern.

Now this is my Cape Ann shawl, I love this pattern.  I made a couple changes, deleting the last row of  crochet around the bottom outer edge, I just thought that less was more.  Possibly in a finer yarn it would have looked OK.  I also added a row of Picot edging on the inner edge.  I thought it looked so much neater after doing this and picot stitch edging is one of my favorites, it just adds a little something.

This shawl is a gift for a friend, but I am going to make another one for myself, that is longer, wraps around and I can tie in the back, well at least that's the plan.  It truly will be a Cape Ann Shawl, because it will remind me of all those fishermen's wifes with their shawls from times long gone.

Christine

Hammond Castle, Cape Ann, MA

Hi Dear Folk,

After some time jornaling by the harbour in Gloucester I drove over to Hammond Castle  a little about Hammond Castle.  I stopped by on Saturday afternoon on my way to Manchester by the Sea, but there was a wedding being held, so was closed for that event.  Such a lovely setting for a wedding.

John J. Hammond, Jr. built the castle between 1926 and 1929, as a home and backdrop to hold his Roman, Renaissance and Medieval artifacts.

I hobbled around very carefully, just the grounds as it was also closed on Tuesday, probably enough for my poor ankle.

The weather changes very quickly on Cape Ann, notice the lovely sun in this picture.  Note the similar picture at the bottom a sea mist has rolled in, in just half an hour and then it rolled out again.

After my time here I went over to lunch at Tierney's and then left for our trip home.

Such a lovely time spent on Cape Ann, I certainly look forward to going back again, so much still to see.

Christine

My Journal By The Sea, Gloucester, Cape Ann, MA

Hi Dear Folk,

Winding down my trip to Cape Ann, MA.  Here I am on our last morning, sister on the promenade at Gloucester Harbor.  It was such a crystal clear morning, after filling the car up with gas for our trip home, I drove along to the waterfront and parked here to soak up the sun and do some journaling.

I will definitely keep a journal on future trips, because I enjoyed doing this one so much, the time I spent putting the journal together was fun, and it's a lovely record of a trip kept in one place.

A fishing boat heading out.

What a lovely place.

Christine

Tea and Islands

Hi Dear Folk,

You can see the tea, but you are going to have to imagine the islands.

After Halibut Point, I had a lunch appointment at Tierney's house.  I was served tea in her mothers antique set, you know how much I loved that, and Rob did marinated steak tips on the grill served with mashed potatoes, very good.

I did a little journaling, then after lunch about 2:30PM to catch the high tide, we took the kayaks down to the water to paddle over to one of the many little saltgrass and sand islands.  If I use the word idyllic, it does not capture the beauty of it.  We launched the kayaks off the salt grass, which is amazing, it's like standing on water because the grass holds your weight, and yet the water can be four or more feet deep, just don't step down a hole in the grass.  There was also a very long granite stone pier, which we stepped off onto the salt grass. This area is all private property, but because Tierney lives on the island, they are allowed to use it.

I got to swim a bit off the little salt grass and sand island, then we headed on back to shower and make it out to dinner before the sun set.  I didn't take my camera because of kayaking, but I should have taken it down to the pier and taken photos, oh well, it's all in my mind.

It's amazing how very similar Tierney's house is in style to our house, with the Dutch style roof line, only a larger version.

Here we are at Farnham's Seafood and Grill it has lovely views across the wetlands.  Tierney says that as a family they have sailed to the restaurant from their house, ate and sailed home again.

Couldn't leave Massachusetts without trying some clam chowder and a very good fish sandwich.

A little history on clams.  Clams were so prolific that they were only used for bate, even lobster if you can believe this were at one time feed to the prison inmates.  Woodman's Seafood,  (take a look at their videos of Woodman's restaurant and the area) just down the road is said to be the originator of the fried clam.  I can imagine some very poor family coming up with the idea of New England Clam Chowder, which has the white milk/cream broth.

Christine

Halibut Point State Park, Cape Ann, MA

Hi Dear Folk,

Here we are Monday morning of my trip to Cape Ann.  Just a mile or so from my digs was Halibut Point State Park.  Is an old granite quarry right by the ocean.

I parked the car, rather expensive for out of staters $10.00.  I took a very slow walk with my bad ankle, but still enjoyed it.  Met a man who lived just down the road and walked it every morning with his dog and I thought how lovely to be able to do that every day.

There seemed to be a couple of ornithologists taking photos and recordings.

Christine